Transgender, women get special quota in ‘Rehri Ban Project’

Ultimate goal of programme to protect from exploitation

ISLAMABAD:

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection Senator Dr Sania Nishtar on Sunday revealed that a special quota will be allocated for women and transgender persons under the novel “Ehsaas Rehri Ban” project to provide them conducive business environment and ensuring their respectable livelihood.

During an interview with a local media outlet, she termed the project as the most challenging initiative in terms of deployment. “Initially the programme is being implemented in the G-8, G-10 and G-11 sectors of the federal capital.”

Dr Sania highlighted how the poor and small peddlers in the main markets of sectors are being provided with licenses and a modern cart at their points after a proper survey is conducted.
“The ultimate goal of this programme is to protect them from exploitation at any level”, she said.

The scope of this project will be expanded to the whole city and a proper mechanism will be developed to extend this facility in a transparent manner without any favoritism.

The SPAM pointed out that there were few women pedlars in these sectors too who are being facilitated under the project.

Talking about the Ehsaas Targeted Subsidy Programme, Dr Sania said that this initiative will help address the difficulties of the common people through minimising the impact of inflation on them and increasing their purchasing capacity.

The Senator maintained that controlling inflation and facilitating the marginalised community are the top most priorities of the present government. “Prime Minister Imran Khan is very much concerned about impact of inflation on poor people and discusses the way forward to address this issue in every meeting.”

Explaining the procedure, Dr Sania said that the eligible families, to be identified through a transparent system, will be able to avail the facility of buying essential commodities like flour, sugar, ghee on subsidized rates.

The families will be able to know their eligibility status through the Ehsaas portal for availing this facility and visit the designated stores where the shopkeeper with the help of an installed app will check their information and then pass on the subsidy, she added.

Shedding light on the expansion of the Ehsaas One Window initiative nationwide, the SAPM said the Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa governments have agreed to provide space for establishing “One Window Centers” to facilitate the Ehsaas beneficiaries.

The Senator highlighted how One Window Centers in the federal capital are facilitating thousands of disadvantaged people from far flung areas by providing them all the services related to NADRA, designated banks, Langar, Panahgah and guidance about all the 19 Ehsaas projects.

Responding to a question about progress on the Ehsaas National Socio-Economic Registry (NSER), Dr Sania said the survey is the backbone of all the Ehsaas projects as benefits are extended to the deserving people after checking their socio-economic data with the help of this survey.

It is pertinent to note that the survey was lingering since the last decade. “We have completed this survey up to 99.7 per cent after hard work of three years, even crossing the target of the households given by the Bureau of Statistics”, she said.